荷蘭訓(xùn)練蜜蜂嗅出新冠病毒 幾秒鐘就有答案

荷蘭科學(xué)家正在訓(xùn)練擁有超強(qiáng)嗅覺的蜜蜂來檢測(cè)新冠病毒，結(jié)果已證實(shí)可行，可以在幾秒鐘內(nèi)成功識(shí)別出新冠病毒的氣味。對(duì)于一些缺乏檢測(cè)設(shè)備的國(guó)家和地區(qū)來說，這個(gè)辦法可謂是便宜又高效。

Scientists in the Netherlands have trained bees to identify COVID-19 through their sense of smell, according to a press release from Wageningen University.

瓦赫寧根大學(xué)發(fā)布新聞稿稱，荷蘭科學(xué)家已成功訓(xùn)練蜜蜂通過嗅覺識(shí)別新冠病毒。

The research was conducted on more than 150 bees in Wageningen University's bio-veterinary research laboratory.

科學(xué)家在瓦赫寧根大學(xué)的生物獸醫(yī)研究實(shí)驗(yàn)室對(duì)150多只蜜蜂展開了研究。

The scientists trained the bees by giving them a treat — a sugar-water solution — every time they were exposed to the scent of a mink infected with COVID-19. Each time the bees were exposed to a non-infected sample, they wouldn't get a reward (a process known as Pavlovian conditioning).

科學(xué)家通過獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)糖水溶液來訓(xùn)練蜜蜂，每次蜜蜂在聞到感染新冠病毒的貂身上的氣味時(shí)都會(huì)得到獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。如果蜜蜂聞到的是沒被感染病毒的氣味樣本，則不會(huì)得到獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)，這一過程被稱作巴甫洛夫條件反射作用。

Eventually, the bees could identify an infected sample within a few seconds — and would then stick out their tongues like clockwork to collect the sugar water.

最終，這些蜜蜂可以在幾秒鐘內(nèi)識(shí)別出感染新冠病毒的樣本，而且它們的舌頭會(huì)像發(fā)條一樣伸出來喝糖水。

Bees aren't the first animals to detect COVID-19 by scent. Researchers have also trained dogs to distinguish between positive and negative COVID-19 samples from human saliva or sweat with fairly high levels of accuracy. A small German study found that dogs could identify positive COVID-19 samples 94% of the time.

蜜蜂不是第一種通過氣味識(shí)別新冠病毒的動(dòng)物。研究人員也曾訓(xùn)練狗來分辨人類唾液和汗液樣本中是否有新冠病毒，準(zhǔn)確率相當(dāng)高。德國(guó)的一項(xiàng)小型研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，狗識(shí)別出新冠病毒陽性樣本的準(zhǔn)確率為94%。

That's because metabolic changes from the coronavirus make an infected person's bodily fluids smell slightly different than those of a non-infected person.

這是因?yàn)樾鹿诓《編淼男玛惔x變化會(huì)讓感染者的體液氣味與非感染者略有不同。

But researchers still aren't sure whether animals are the best bet for sniffing out COVID-19 cases outside the lab.

不過研究人員還不確定在實(shí)驗(yàn)室之外動(dòng)物能否準(zhǔn)確無誤地嗅出新冠肺炎病例。

"No one is saying they can replace a PCR machine, but they could be very promising," Holger Volk, a veterinary neurologist, told Nature. PCR machines are what lab technicians use to process standard COVID-19 swab tests.

獸醫(yī)神經(jīng)學(xué)家霍爾格·沃爾克告訴《自然》雜志說：“我們不是說動(dòng)物嗅覺可以取代聚合酶鏈?zhǔn)椒磻?yīng)儀，但是動(dòng)物檢測(cè)方式前景十分廣闊。”聚合酶鏈?zhǔn)椒磻?yīng)儀被實(shí)驗(yàn)室技術(shù)人員用來做標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化拭子新冠核酸檢測(cè)。

At the very least, certain animals could be useful for identifying COVID-19 in places or countries in which high-tech laboratory equipment is scarce or inaccessible.

至少，在高科技實(shí)驗(yàn)室設(shè)備稀缺或無從獲取的地區(qū)或國(guó)家，可以用某些動(dòng)物來識(shí)別新冠病毒。

Wageningen scientists are working on a prototype of a machine that could automatically train multiple bees at once, then uses their skills to test for coronavirus aerosols (tiny virus-laden particles) in the surrounding environment.

瓦赫寧根大學(xué)的科學(xué)家正在研發(fā)一種可以一次自動(dòng)訓(xùn)練多只蜜蜂的機(jī)器，然后這些蜜蜂就可以利用它們的技能來檢測(cè)周圍環(huán)境中是否有氣溶膠（含有病毒的微小顆粒物）。

英文來源：商業(yè)內(nèi)幕網(wǎng)